Survivin is a member of the IAP (inhibitors of apoptosis) family of proteins (Ambrosini G. et al. Nature Med. 1997, 3,917-21). Survivin, like other IAP family members, has been implicated in protection from apoptosis. In cell culture systems, survivin overexpression has been associated with inhibition of both the intrinsic and extrinsic cell death pathways. (Mahotka C. et al. Cancer Res. 1999, 59, 6097-6102; Tamm, I. et al. Cancer Res. 1998, 58, 5315-20; Altieri D., Nat. Rev. Cancer 2003, 3, 46-54). There is also experimental evidence that survivin is important in cell division. Survivin shows a clear cell-cycle-dependent expression at mitosis. Survivin has also been shown to exist in distinct subcellular pools (Fortugno et al, J. Cell. Sci. 2003, 115, 575-85), and a nuclear pool of survivin has been shown to have an essential role in mitotic spindle function and cell cleavage. Survivin is a member of the group of chromosomal passenger proteins including INCENP, Aurora B kinase and Borealin. These proteins have been grouped based on their subcellular localization patterns and on demonstrated binding in vitro and in vivo (Bolton M. A. et al. Mol. Biol. Cell 2002, 13, 3064-77; Wheatley S. P. et al. Curr. Biol. 2001, 11, 886-90; Uren A. G. et al. Curr. Biol. 2000, 10, 1319-28; Honda, R. et al. Mol. Biol. Cell 2003, 14, 3325-41; Adams R. R. et al. Trends Cell Biol. 2001, 11, 49-54). In particular, survivin has been shown to be important for localization of Aurora B kinase to the mitotic machinery (Chen J. et al. J. Biol. Chem 2003, 278, 486-90), and this complex is important in communicating lack of tension to microtubules (Lens, S. and Medema, R. H. Cell Cycle 2003, 2, 507-10; Beardmore V. A. et al. J. Cell. Sci. 2004, 117, 4033-42). The chromosomal passenger proteins associate with centromeres at metaphase, central spindle microtubules at anaphase, and remain located at the cytokinesis remains at end of telophase. Survivin is highly overexpressed in transformed cell lines but is undetectable in terminally differentiated adult tissues (Chiou S. K. et al. Med. Sci. Monit. 2003, 9, 125-9). Thus survivin is an attractive therapeutic target in cancer due to both its differential expression in tumors compared to normal tissues and its ability to promote tumor growth and survival by multiple pathways involving multiple mechanisms.